Links I like

I have not been married very long, but something I have picked up is just how huge communication is. It’s a big deal. Regardless of however long you’ve been married, you can probably agree with me on this. In our culture where everything is going on at a million miles per second (and that is not even including having a family), Joelle and I have to be incredibly intentional for communication to take place within our marriage, otherwise it just won’t happen.

The point of this little exhortation is that, in handling the Scriptures, sanctification and speculation rise and fall in inverse proportion. As speculation increases, sanctification decreases. The more guessing the less blessing.

Few people would give their life for a speculation. Few will gouge out an eye or cut off a hand, because of a guess. Suppositions make weak expositions.

Wiping away tears from his eyes, the once confident man expresses his dismay, “How did this happen, I had such strong faith?”

And he did. He’s not the only one shocked. If you asked his pastor to give a list of the top 10 people that would never fall like this, he’d have been on that list. If you needed someone to counsel young couples going through marital strife, this was the guy. He seemed to have a way of helping young men to become better husbands. This guy had a faith in the Lord that was secretly envied by many in the congregation.

Evangelism has always been hard. If there is anything new about our challenges today, it’s how emboldened the opposition seems to be. Non-Christians used to say “To each his own.” Now they are just as likely to accuse us of stupidity (“Seriously, you don’t believe in evolution?”) or hateful bigotry (“How dare you say homosexuality is a sin?”). Employers increasingly do rigorous social media background checks before making hiring and promotion decisions. How long before companies who are fearful of workplace harassment and discrimination pass over the more visible Christian for someone who makes fewer waves?

In spite of all this, I am so grateful for the brothers who feared God more than man and shared the gospel with me. My own faith is the fruit of workplace evangelism.